One Year Already?

Matching Easter skirts!

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope you all had an amazing Easter. It was definitely one of the best ones I've had yet. Easter is my favorite holiday, so I was worried that I would have a hard time not being with my family, but it was super good! We had an awesome musical program for church. Two of our investigators were there and were able to get priesthood blessings after. We had a great dinner with 2 members, a less active, and James, our investigator :) We all shared our testimony of the Atonement and Resurrection and it was so spiritual! I shared how I came to appreciate the Savior's Atonement through losing my mom. How I knew that He was the only one who knew exactly how I felt, so I was able to rely on that and I didn't have to carry the burden alone. Also how in Mosiah 16 it says that the grave has no victory and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ because of His Resurrection.

Our Easter dinner hosts

We used the Easter stuff from Mormon.org a ton in our finding and teaching this week. It was super helpful! The #becauseofhim video was just amazing and all the students that we showed it to on campus loved it! One guy texted us after and said, "I appreciate what you guys are doing and the love you have for it. Keep doing what you love, and it will be your legacy. It was His." We thought that was so nice!

So, lots of people have been asking if my address is the same. Yes, it is. All mail goes to the mission office, so it will always be the same mailing address even if I get transferred! Thanks! :)

I forgot to mention last week that UCF means University of Central Florida. :) This week is finals here, and I am stressing out! I might as well be taking them! I just can like feel it in the air and it just reminds me of finals week at school! Yikes! So this week and next might be a little hard for us missionaries to find people to meet with us. But we are just gonna have faith that the Lord will provide! There is us and the elders who have the same area and work mostly on campus. It has been kind of weird lately because it's gotten almost a little competitive! Hellooo! We are all on the same team here, duh! But the elders used to have a different area, and now it is the same as ours. So we are trying to work with the members to bring their friends and stuff, then the elders just jump in and take all of the referrals from members! So we had a little talk with them and the ward mission leader about it, and it should be getting better! I think our district leader (the one we share the area with) is sick of my attitude haha.

Please please please keep our investigators James, Hayder, and Cody in your prayers. Especially James. He is supposed to get baptized on Saturday, but he keeps letting stupid little concerns get to him and he is doubting it. We have already pushed it back once, and we cannot do it again! Yes, all of our investigators are male...don't even ask me haha.

I am still loving it here so far and I love my companion so much! We probably get along a little too well... And we are probably going to live together once she gets back. :) I want to wish the best step-mom ever a Happy Birthday this Wednesday! :) And oh my gosh you guys...guess what Thursday is!!!!! My year mark!!! AHHHH!!!! I can't believe it. I seriously just feel like I was walking into the MTC last week!

Love, Sister Lowry 

Easter Week!

Hellooo to my wonderful family and friends! :)

I am so excited for Easter this week. It is such a fantastic time of year. To be celebrating the Resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. I know that He does live and that He loves us each so much and so individually. His rising again on the third day makes it possible for us to be saved from death and resurrected. God's plan is so perfect. I am so grateful for it! The church is doing an Easter Initiative thing, so that everyone can share the beautiful Easter message with their friends! Just go to facebook.com/mormon or mormon.org/becauseofhim. And the hashtag they are using for everything is #becauseofhim. I am super excited for this and for everyone to be able to use these tools to share the gospel! :) 

Ok, now for the entertaining week I had! Ohhhh my goodness! Remember how last week I said something about how this week's email would be much more exciting because I was getting a new area and companion? Well, that is exactly what happened! Sister Christensen and I have been talking about how we don't know how we are going to fit all the excitement into one hour of emailing! We came to a brilliant conclusion! Lists ;) 

1. Monday I said goodbye to all my family in Hunter's Creek. It was sad of course, but after 6 months, I was ready to go. Tuesday morning was transfer meeting, which is always exciting but also nerve wracking! 
2. My new companion is Sister Christensen from Washington state. She is amazing and we are already best friends! She went to cosmotology school in Orem and is licensed so she judges my hair, make up, skin, products, etc!!!! haha just kidding, she totally doesn't! But I get free haircuts now ;) It's like $40 for a trim over here. But seriously we get along so well and teach well together and it is soooo nice! 
3. My new area. You are going to die. I did. I am in a YSA ward called College Park. We work on UCF campus. The second largest school in the country. Yeah, ask me! I thought I would never serve in a YSA ward! But here I am! So far it is really cool, but I feel like I'm back at college! But everyone was jealous that I got transferred here because I guess it is like the best or something! So far the members are really cool and we have a couple investigators we are working with that should be getting baptized over the next few weeks! 
4. This week we basically only had 2 days to actually do missionary work. So our numbers were a little discouraging, but we are excited to start a new week! The next 2 weeks are finals, then there is a break between semesters, so it might be a little rocky finding people to teach, but we have faith! :) 
5. Thursday my companion may or may not have gotten hit by a car on her bike...but she is fine!! These Orlando drivers might be the death of us....
6. Friday we had an all sisters meeting, which was awesome! We had some cool little workshops and they put together a little missionary mall of donated clothes, accessories, products, etc! So that was fun! It is always fun seeing the other missionaries. 
7. Saturday we got to go to the Fort Lauderdale Temple Open House!!!!! AHHH!! I know!!! It was sooo amazing!! The bus ride was a little rough, but seeing the temple and having our investigators see it was so neat. We didn't get home till midnight!! I thought I was going to die! We really did feel like death though. Plus my companion is having to take muscle relaxers when she sleeps, so waking up has been really rough, and she has been talking in her sleep! 

I hope you all have an amazing week and a great Easter! I know it will be if you make it that way! Remember that you are a child of God and He loves you more than you can comprehend! I love you too! xoxoxo

Love, Sister Lowry 

What a Blessing!

The Medina Family

 Good morning everyone! 

Wow, wasn't General Conference amazing? I hope you were all able to watch it. I am so grateful for our prophet and the apostles. We were able to be spiritually rejuvenated and receive guidance from our Heavenly Father! What a blessing! This is a phrase that my district has adopted because our amazing district leader, Elder Waller, says it all the time! It is kind of a silly thing, but has helped us to recognize the blessings and miracles we get to witness every day! What did you love about conference? I heard from a few of you; thanks for sharing! I really don't think I could pick a favorite, but I loved the talks from the First Presidency. They are truly inspired.

Congrats to my brother Brady and my dad for taking stake in wrestling AGAIN! I am so proud! :) Exactly a year ago Saturday I was able to be sealed to my wonderful family for eternity! It seems like it was yesterday. I am so grateful that our families can be together for eternity because of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Adao's

So, transfers are tomorrow, and I am finally leaving! I have been here for 6 months. I am a little worried about leaving my recent converts, but I am excited for a change. I need it! We don't find out where we are going until tomorrow. Tonight I will be saying goodbye to all the wonderful friends I have made here! I have loved seeing this area grow and flourish since I got here in October. It was kinda dead. As I've said before, faith and hard work brings miracles!

I don't remember much exciting news from last week. There was one cool miracle though. Sal now holds another sign on a different busy street. I sent the picture of him in the dog suit. Well, we took a little detour to see him on Thursday, and as we were biking there, I felt that we should go visit this couple we met like a month ago. They seemed super solid, but when we went back, no one answered. And we knew they were home. Missionaries become pretty stalkerish. Anyway, we tried again and Haley was home and let us right in! She apologized for before, and we were able to teach her! She is so cute and is really excited to learn about the gospel. She and her boyfriend want to come to church, it has just been hard to meet with them since!

The Johnson's from Cedar City!

Oh, we also had Zone Training Meeting this week, which was amazing! The work is totally changing. There is a huge push now to just baptize. We do so many things as missionaries, but it is all to baptize! We brush our teeth to baptize! It's not our job to prepare people anymore. I hope you will all take the counsel from conference to study Preach My Gospel. It is an inspired book! It has changed my mission and my life!

I could write forever about all this spiritual stuff, but I'm sure you get sick of it ha! Hopefully I will have more exciting things to talk about next week with a new area and new companion! Here are some pictures!

Love, Sister Lowry